Month: December 2012

Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Sweet Potato Gnocchi

Posted by | Dec 11, 2012 | |

This is a product review, and not a recipe. Years ago I made my own gnocchi. I did it once. I don’t care what Martha Stewart says, making gnocchi is time consuming and frustrating. So since I did not plan to ever make them again, much less try to make them gluten free, I just figured I wouldn’t be eating gnocchi again. But then I was there in Whole Foods and I saw a package claiming to be gluten-free sweet potato gnocchi. So I had to try them. Now my husband is not a gnocchi fan. He has always found them to be gluey and heavy. These were not. He liked them and actually requested a repeat purchase. The product is Nuovo Sweet Potato gnocchi. What was interesting about these is that they seemed to have been developed without any wheat flour, and then the manufacturer realized that they were gluten free. Meanwhile they are a marvelous cross between sweet potato ravioli (a pre-diagnosis addiction of mine) and the most perfect gnocchi. I prepared them according to package directions and then took 2 tbsp of butter flavor spread, fried 2 tbsp of sage in the spread, added some salt and walnuts and tossed to heat and then tossed with the cooked gnocchi. I like sage and sweet potatoes and don’t like to try too hard. These gnocchi are available...

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Why We Listened to the Doctor and Cut Out the Fruit Juice

Posted by | Dec 6, 2012 | , |

One of the foods that you will rarely find in my home is fruit juice. We are not allergic to fruit juice. The stuff we used to drink was always the best organic pure juice. While I think that it can be OK to drink small quantities of juice with meals on special occasions, there is a reason your pediatrician is telling you not to give your children apple juice. Apple juice really does have as much sugar as cola. Here is the math. Twelve ounces of cola (so served without ice) contains 150 calories and 40 grams of carbohydrates all of which are sugars. It contains no fiber and no protein and no nutrients. That sugar tends to be high fructose corn syrup which is mostly fructose but also contains glucose. You can check this fact here http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/4152 Now to get the USDA database to give me an adjusted quantity of 12 ounces so that I was comparing apples to apples (ha ha) I had to modify the ounces part of the database. This led to some unattractive spillover links. So I am apologizing for those in advance. They are messy but they allow you to easily check my facts so I left them in. Twelve ounces of apple juice (again without ice) contains 170 calories and 40 grams of sugar. It also contains virtually no fiber and...

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Why Your Quinoa is Probably Not Gluten Free

Posted by | Dec 4, 2012 | |

Have you ever eaten quinoa and felt really horrible later on? Have you wondered why? There are people who will assure you that quinoa is gluten free. Technically this is true. Oats are also technically gluten-free. The problem with quinoa is the same as the problem with oats. Quinoa not truly certified as GF is frequently cross-contaminated with barley and wheat. I uncovered this when trying to ensure that a recipe was kosher for Passover. The fact that I am not actually Jewish is a bit of an issue because I have to do quite a bit of research to figure out if what I am saying is kosher, is actually kosher. Which is how I found out that quinoa is almost never kosher for Passover because it tends to be cross contaminated with wheat and barley. The first link I am posting here is Chabad.org which indicates that the quinoa farmers tend to cover the drying quinoa with barley so that the birds eat the barley instead of the quinoa. This cross contamination makes it not kosher for passover. It also seems that it would make it not gluten-free. http://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/498035/jewish/Is-Quinoa-Kosher-for-Passover.htm The second is to the New York Times which covered this issue back in 2011. This time wheat was found in the quinoa. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/18/nyregion/for-passover-eating-quinoa-is-popular-but-is-it-kosher.html?_r=0 So what is a gluten-free person to do? There are certfied GF quinoas with...

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Why Brands and Instructions Matter When Baking Gluten Free or Dairy Free

Posted by | Dec 3, 2012 | |

Last night I was trying to make lemon bars. I had made them before where the filling was good but the crust needed help and so I was trying again with an adapted crust recipe. Unfortunately I cannot help but tinker with recipes and so, in search of more lemon flavor I added one tablespoon of additional lemon juice to the recipe. So one extra tablespoon of lemon juice across a 13 x 9 pan. The entire thing fell apart. I have a nice shortbread crust recipe now, but the filling turned to goo. I mention my latest culinary failure for three reasons 1) I have never liked cooking show hosts who act like making great Beef Wellington or even cheesecake is somehow super easy. It is not. Adapting to gluten-free is a pain in the butt and I threw out more gelatinous banana breads and inedible vegan brownies than you would believe. 2) I am assuming that you are here and not at Gluten Free Girl and The Chef because baking is now a necessity and not because baking is a passion. Therefore you may not realize just how precise you need to be about measurements in baking. One extra tablespoon of liquid can indeed ruin a recipe. A small tweak can make a big difference, so you have to follow recipes. And if baking gluten-free is your...

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Does Starbucks Gingerbread Spice Latte Contain Gluten or Dairy?

Posted by | Dec 1, 2012 | |

If you go into a Starbucks looking for something to be gluten-free or honestly free on any allergen, you are likely to be dissatisfied. If you read enough gluten-free blogs, or the forums on celiac.com, you can see that plenty of people have been cross contaminated at Starbucks. This is why they warn you on their website to be careful and talk to a barista. One thing that was very exciting for me this year has been the new Via packets. They taste great and they give me a nice safe happy way to enjoy my favorite seasonal lattes. Since I never liked the foam anyway, I just microwave my vegan milk at home and then I add the Via packet. It is actually easier and less expensive than going to Starbucks. I even have a little can of soy whip! Unfortunately this year they will not be making a Gingerbread Spice Via packet. I spoke to two different store managers and both said the same thing. This is very disappointing for me. What they are doing although I have only seen it in gift baskets, is selling the gingerbread syrup that they use for their lattes. That said, again I saw it only in one of our local Starbucks and only as part of a gift basket of all gingerbread things. Some people claim that you can make...

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